


Keith has a target on his back

by Teacher_K



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Comfort, Gen, Rescue, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 12:36:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29841633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Teacher_K/pseuds/Teacher_K
Summary: Captured on a mission, Keith faces something new.  Will rescue arrive?  If it does, will he recover?
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Karin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karin/gifts).



> This started as a 4,000 short whump piece for Karin as a Christmas present. When she received it, she sent back an e-mail -- (paraphrased) You CANNOT stop there! What happens NEXT?
> 
> Six weeks and an additional 42,000 words later, Karin likes the ending. This will update regularly. Kudos appreciated, and everyone knows, debates about characters make everyone smile. If you have questions, do not hesitate to ask. 
> 
> Enjoy the accidentally saga: Keith has a target on his back.
> 
> Thanks for stopping by!

Keith has a target on his back, or at least it feels that way to him. Maybe in a previous life, the young man had either worked for or been the leader of a people bent on conquest through death and destruction. The Mongols, the Huns, or even Ancient Persians under the command of Cyrus. Whatever the cause, he did not want to open his eyes.

From the pounding in his head and generalized aches throughout his body, he must have hit hard after ejecting from Black. He tried to reach out through their bond, but it only caused his head to feel like a mini-nuclear bomb exploded inside it. Until some kind of healing happened, it meant no reaching out to his bonded half. 

Wanting to remain unconscious to escape from the screaming agony of his head which currently dwarfed any other pain from his body, Keith’s mind had already started working out where he had landed and what he needed to do to reach the rest of the paladins. As he drifted further toward consciousness and opening his eyes, he realized two things. One: he no longer wore armor or even his under armor and lay bare on a cold, metal surface; and two: shackles pinned his arms and legs to the surface. 

The Black Paladin stubbornly kept his eyes closed. The longer he kept the closed, the longer he could deny reality. Just like a toddler refusing to swallow the food they did not like. He concentrated on listening through the pounding noise in his head to figure out which faction of the Galra empire gave him such splendid hospitality. Gah. I sound like Lance. Picking up on that sarcastic streak of his. Which I did not need to do.

“The monitors tell me you hover near consciousness, half-breed. It does you no good to avoid your fate.” The voice sounded like it came from somewhere on Keith’s right side. 

Attempting to open his eyes, he found only the left eye would open. The right opened slightly, but he could only make out a blurry purple figure. Blinking did not clear up his visions or open his eyes any wider. Great. Two black eyes. That accounts for some of the pain in my head. Guessing I have a concussion. If only my head would stop for a moment so I could assess the rest of me.  
“Hmmm. Interesting.”

Keith could see some movement from the blurry figure. Then it moved closer and leaned over Keith’s face only inches away. The movement caused the paladin’s stomach to roll, and he closed his eye, swallowed hard to keep the nausea at bay. He did not want to asphyxiate because he could not roll to his side.

“Well, those are interesting readings. Tell me half-breed, what exactly are you feeling right now? Your face went even paler and it seems you suffer from some sort of digestive distress.”

Keith gritted his teeth and swallowed hard, concentrating on keeping his stomach contents IN his stomach.  
“Fascinating. This must be a human reaction. Can you tell me what you are reacting to?”

Losing the battle, Keith turned his head to the side and his stomach contents erupted. He could feel it splatter onto the metal surface and back onto his face and underneath his cheek. His one semi-good eye teared until he could no longer see anything but blurry colors. The smell of his own vomit caused his stomach to heave repeatedly until nothing further emerged except thin bile, which burned the back of his throat. The agony in his head increased exponentially and his awareness shrank to trying to turn his head away from the smell and praying he would pass out to escape the torment.

True to form, he could not find relief in unconsciousness. He managed to turn his head away from the puddle of his own sick but could not escape the smell or the feeling of it dripping down his cheek into his ear and hair. His stomach started rolling again. 

Dimly a voice reached his ear. He felt a sharp pain and then blackness claimed him.

XXXX …. XXXX …. XXXX


	2. Chapter 2

Grolok looked at the prisoner, not understanding what had just happened and could only surmise it had something to do with the human physiology of the mutt. Looking at the assistant, the Galra’s nose wrinkled nose at the smell. “Wash it thoroughly and clean the mess. Let me know when it starts to stir again.”

“Yes, Grolok. Vrepit Sa.”

“Vrepit Sa.” Grolok exited to the observation room to examine the readings taken before and after the mutt had regained consciousness. The Galra scientist muttered while scanning through the data, not understanding. Why had the half-breed expelled the contents of the stomach and did the human species have some sort of feedback loop that caused it to continue. The Galra just did not have enough data on humans. What little they had came from the two inferior specimens captured with the champion. The druids had experimented on the champion making the data skewed and suspect. Grolok really wanted and needed some fresh human specimens not tainted by the druids to dissect. The mongrel would not give a real sense of the species because of its mixed parentage. With no other Galra/Human mongrels, the Galra would have to ensure any procedures did not cause permanent damage to the specimen which limited experiments to non-invasive procedures only. 

Disappointed, Grolok left to find a meal before the experiment awoke.

XXXX …. XXXX …. XXXX

“Bundle. . . engla forgrun. . . minimal damage…”

Keith started to pick up words and sounds. As he began regaining consciousness, he realized several things. One, he only heard the Galran used commonly throughout the empire for standard communications. Which meant somewhere along the way, someone had either confiscated his translator, or it had ceased functioning. The paladin leaned toward the former since Coran had explained the near indestructability the translators. He had learned much Galran from the Blades, but not enough to understand everything, especially technical terminology. 

Two, someone had cleaned him up because he no longer smelled vomit or felt the acidic puddle under his cheek.

Three, he still lay on the metal table sans clothing. 

Four, he really did not want to open his eyes, because his head still pounded, drowning out any other sensations from his body. He could hear two voices and tried to piece together what they said from the words he did understand through the pain.

“Show the hruluk gaining consciousness. Showing elevated . May have to .”  
“It will not waste resources, because I need the data pure, and this current condition of the hruluk prevents that.”

“As you command.”

Keith tried not to scream as he felt lightening through his veins and head. It could have lasted seconds or minutes and left him panting with tears forming at the corners of his eyes.

“Interesting. head damaged.”

“Agreed. Reinstall? ”

“Yes.”

Keith realized his head no longer hurt, and he felt quite good except for the lingering spasms in his muscles. He tried to open his eyes only to realize something covered them and kept them closed. He felt something grab either side of his jaw to force it open. Instinctively he fought, until something closed over his nose and he needed to breath. Something attached to his back molar and he could understand what the Galra said.

“Bite me and you will regret it. Do you understand my words now?”

Keith did not answer. He felt something cover his nose and mouth. Trying to thrash brought the knowledge that his captors had restricted all movement, including his head. It did not take long for his vision to turn grey on the edges. Just as Keith thought he would suffocate, whatever blocked his face moved. He gasped in breaths like a beached shark, the grey and black slowly receding from his vision. “I will ask again. Do you understand my words?”

Keith swallowed trying to wet his mouth. “Ye-es,” came the croaked response. 

“Good. You will answer my questions without delay or you will be punished. Am I clear?”

“Yes.”

“Excellent. Then we shall begin.”

Keith felt a small needle in his left shoulder. 

“Injected administered at 7.34 standard time.” 

The paladin felt air move as the Galra around him moved back from the table. He heard a low conversation he could not quite hear or understand. Keith’s head started to feel slightly detached from his shoulders and he could almost feel cold moving through his veins.  
It started with a small tingle in his left foot. Almost like it had started to fall asleep. Then it spread to his right foot. He tried twitching his toes to wake them up but could not even tell if they moved. The feeling spread up through his legs, groin, abdomen, into his arms like his whole body had started to fall asleep. The tingles started to increase in intensity and almost pain. Keith clenched his teeth and struggled to move a single finger. In the next instant, his feet felt as though they had caught fire. The sensation crawled up legs, groin, and abdomen. It must have spread to his arms as well, but the excruciating pain from his groin and feet blocked out any other sensations. 

He could not even scream. He could hear nothing beyond the torment. It felt like acid eating through his skin to his muscles and even his bones. His detected the scent of burning flesh and the sensation of his skin bubbling and popping as it cooked. Keith had burned his hand once when he tried to rescue a potato that had fallen into the campfire. His skin had blistered immediately. Feeling his skin blister and pop made that pain feel like a mosquito bite in comparison. 

He tried to breathe, to move, to do anything to find a moment of respite. He could see nothing through whatever covered his face, could hear nothing past the roaring in his own ears. The smell of burning flesh grew stronger until he could taste the ashes on his tongue. He could feel the ashes travel into his lungs as his breaths grew shorter and increasingly frantic. Into the chaos, a singular point of pain started in the middle of his chest, growing in intensity. Keith had no breath, no thoughts, nothing but agony surrounding him. Then everything stopped.

XXXX …. XXXX …. XXXX

“Interesting. The entire nervous system has accelerated beyond what I could have predicted. The heart rate has increased substantially and the mongrel shows signs of incipient cardiac failure. Its pain threshold far surpasses anything I have measured in other species but does not seem to have a fail-stop when the upper limits are reached. Interesting.”

Grolok watched dispassionately as the creature strapped to the table spasmed and screamed. They would paralyze the vocal chords the next time as the noise grew increasingly distracting. The entire body of the mutt grew taught. The bands and force field kept it from moving but it grew substantially louder and more distracting.

Grolok’s assistant, Nav’s nose wrinkled at the high-pitched keening. “It seems to have inherited the worst of both its parent’s ability to make noise. Grolok, the heart seems to be in some kind of distress. The rhythm has become erratic and beats per dobash is increasing. 

“Hmmm. Watch that, as we do not want the subject to expire on the first experiment. Call in one of the druids if we need to revive it.”

“Already done, Grolok, One waits in the observation room.”

“Excellent.”

The three Galra continued to monitor the progress of the experiment. The heartrate of the subject continued to rise from 100 beats per dobash until it reached over 250 beats per dobash. The creature gave a shudder and its heart ceased to beat.

“Hmmm. Interesting. Ok. Inject the counter to the stimulator. It would not do to revive the experiment only to have the heart fail again.”

“Yes, Gorlok. It also seems to have soiled itself again”

“Hmm, must be some sort of reflex from the human side.” As the two worked to stabilize their experiment, the druid drifted into the room. 

Without speaking, the druid waited until Gorlok gave him a nod, then a ball of purple quintessence floated over to the mongrel to his heart. 

With a large gasp, the subject began breathing again, and the heart restarted at a slower pace. The drugs injected into it countered the overstimulation of the nervous system to keep the subject disoriented and experiencing some stimulation but not enough to stop the heart again. 

The Druid stepped back as the other two continued to take measurements and recorded their observations. The half-breed did not stir after the initial gasp beyond occasional involuntary twitches.

Nav quickly scrolled through the data, “It shows very low quintessence as well as low energy. I would hazard it needs sustenance to facilitate healing. I can easily give it substance through its mouth like a baby Hrrolna.”

“Proceed. Inject the remainder of the counter.” Gorlok kept a portion of awareness on the Druid standing behind him. Rumors stated it answered directly to Honerva, who had an interest in the Paladins. Gorlok did not want to lose this experiment too soon and needed to continue to produce useful data.

The Druid said nothing; only hovered in the background watching everything happening. Nav once again cleaned the subject then inserted a tube down its throat to add some sustenance to its stomach. It tried to fight the tube, but a small burst across its nerves still sensitive from the first experiment caused it to still. Liquid still leaked from the corners of its eyes, and Gorlok made a note to interrogate the creature as to the cause.

The experiment could not stay conscious long, and within one half varga, the three Galra left the prisoner in the room. The Druid disappeared in a flash of purple light while Gorlok and Nav sat to analyze the data they had gathered.

XXXX …. XXXX …. XXXX

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Having beta'd many many works over the years, young writers often ask for tips, especially grammar. I do not claim expertise, only experience and many many classes. Below, find the first of my favorite five:
> 
> 1\. Show not tell. This means eliminating any form of "to be" from non-dialogue. (is, are, was, were). By showing and describing, you draw your reader further into the story. Example:
> 
> I was walking to the store. I saw a cat that was sitting on an old fence like it was about to fall off. It was mewing. I was curious because I had never seen this cat before. It was many colors and had long whiskers.
> 
> As I walked my usual path to the store, I heard the sound of a cat mewing. Looking around curiously, I spied a multi-colored cat with long whiskers balanced precariously on the top of a thin fence with long strips of a faded green paint curling toward the ground.
> 
> Can you guess why someone gave me the nom du guerre of Teacher K? :)


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